Deeplinks Blog posts about File Sharing

The L.A. Times Technology Blog hits the nail on the head, responding to news that the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has sent out letters asking for help investigating security breaches caused when government employees and contractors who use P2P software accidentally share information on networks like Lime Wire.

Earlier this week, reports that ISPs were going to be cooperating with the RIAA's "three strikes" plans triggered alarm bells. Three-strikes proposals to kick customers off the Internet for alleged file-sharing have struggledto find acceptanceacross the world, so it seemed unusual for American ISPs to be contemplating plans that would result in the termination of paying customers. Major ISPs must have seen the storm clouds of user dissent brewing as well, as AT&T and Comcast quickly issued emphatic denials to the rumors that they were interested in becoming IP enforcers for copyright holders.

As we've discussed previously, Choruss is the name of the new entity, backed by three major record labels, that is interested in granting blanket licenses to universities (and someday residential ISPs) to authorize the music swapping (on P2P and otherwise) that has become a fact of digital life. As a big fan of voluntary collective licensing, EFF is following the development of Choruss closely and with great hopes. At the same time, there are many devils in the details.

Fortunately, the public debates about Choruss (which is still a work in progress) have begun, with those on both sides contributing valuable thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of Choruss (or any system like Choruss):

The battle to control online music has taken a particularly outrageous turn. As if private censorship, fines, intimidation and blacklisting weren't enough, now the Department of Justice — for the first time we're aware of — is threatening to throw a man in jail for noncommercial music-sharing.1